Americans United - abortion rightshttps://www.au.org/tags/abortion-rights
enProtect Your Neighbors (Yes, All Of Them)https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/protect-your-neighbors-yes-all-of-them
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-jones">Sarah Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><a href="https://storify.com/americansunited/protect-thy-neighbor" target="_blank">At a press conference this morning</a>, Americans United <a href="https://au.org/media/press-releases/americans-united-announces-new-project-to-counter-bogus-religious-freedom" target="_blank">announced a bold new initiative</a> to combat claims that religious freedom is a constitutional right to discriminate.</p><p>AU’s executive director, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, explained to reporters at the National Press Club that the new project, Protect Thy Neighbor, will defend religious freedom as it’s actually defined by the Constitution.</p><p>“Twelve days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a historic ruling, declared that marriage equality must be recognized nationwide,” he said. “While I applaud this action by the court, I’ve worked in the civil liberties field long enough to know that even a landmark ruling like this one is often far from the last word, as we learned in 1962 and ’63, when the high court handed down rulings banning coercive forms of government-backed prayer and Bible reading in public schools, and in 1973 after the court legalized abortion.”</p><p>He added that the Religious Right has described marriage equality in “apocalyptic terms” and that groups affiliated with the movement have stated they’ll seek legal remedies, like a constitutional amendment, and other laws that “give them the right to discriminate against same-sex couples on the grounds of ‘religious freedom.’”</p><p>AU’s legislative director, Maggie Garrett, and senior litigation counsel, Greg Lipper, echoed those concerns in their statements, and added that they are prepared to fight.</p><p>“Protect Thy Neighbor stands for the principle that everyone should be free to believe or not believe, but no one’s religious beliefs should be used harm others,” Garrett said, and added, “Our legislative team will be watching state legislatures, Congress and the [Obama] administration for policies that would sanction discrimination in the name of religion.”</p><p>And when governments pass discriminatory laws, Lipper said, Americans United’s legal team will take the fight to court. “These cases will be won or lost based on our ability to make it clear to judges that these radical religious liberty claims affect real people – who are denied service, or a job, or health care, or government services that their taxes have paid for,” he said.</p><p>The project is designed to counter the Religious Right’s stated intentions to undermine civil rights for LGBT people in the wake of the high court’s <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Obergefell v. Hodges </em>ruling</a> – and reclaim religious freedom as a democratic principle that protects everyone.</p><p>That’s necessary now because extremist groups have redefined “religious freedom” and in the process, turned it into a thriving industry. The grandmotherly florist, the mom and pop bakery: These cases are simply chum for a far-right perpetual outrage machine. Groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and the U.S. Catholic bishops demand we protect our neighbors, as long as they are fetuses, or fundamentalist pastors, or corporate businessmen who think contraceptives are abortifacients.</p><p>Meanwhile, zealots profit – and inch ever closer to their goal of a theocratic America. This, to them, is success. But what does it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?</p><p>When these groups succeed, others suffer.</p><p>The Religious Right’s concern for its neighbors is as selective as its definition of religious freedom. They do not acknowledge the harm suffered by same-sex couples denied civil rights protections. They are not troubled by the consequences of restricting women’s health care. Yet these people, too, are our neighbors. And despite Supreme Court victories, they are in desperate need of protection.<br /><br />Unlike the Religious Right, we care about our neighbors – all of them. And we’re prepared to defend their rights in court, and in legislatures, and wherever else this extremist campaign to restrict civil rights rears its archaic head.</p><p>For more information about Protect Thy Neighbor, and to report a constitutional violation, <a href="http://www.protectthyneighbor.org/" target="_blank">visit its new website</a>. I especially urge you to <a href="http://www.protectthyneighbor.org/pledge" target="_blank">sign our pledge</a>.</p><p>Your neighbors may be counting on it.</p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-refusals-and-rfra">Religious Refusals and RFRA</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/marriage">Marriage</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/reproductive-health-conscience-clauses-for-religious-objectors">Reproductive Health &amp; Conscience Clauses for Religious Objectors</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/protect-thy-neighbor">Protect Thy Neighbor</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-refusals">Religious Refusals</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/abortion-rights">abortion rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/womens-health">women&#039;s health</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lgbt-rights">LGBT rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/au-defends-marriage-equality">AU Defends Marriage Equality</a></span></div></div>Tue, 07 Jul 2015 16:54:52 +0000Ms. Sarah Jones11256 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/protect-your-neighbors-yes-all-of-them#commentsA Choice Conversation: New Campaign Highlights Intersection of Faith, Women’s Rightshttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/a-choice-conversation-new-campaign-highlights-intersection-of-faith-women-s
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-jones">Sarah Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Launched yesterday at the National Press Club, “It’s Time” counters the notion that people of faith uniformly oppose choice. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The idea of legalized abortion has polarized Americans ever since Roe v. Wade.</p><p>By now, the slogans are quite familiar: Those who support abortion rights say it’s her body, her choice. Those who don’t say abortion is child murder. And according to the Religious Right, even access to contraception is a violation of some divine precept.<br /><br />But a new campaign by an Americans United ally, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), aims to set aside the slogans and reclaim the conversation on faith and women’s health. Launched yesterday at the National Press Club, “It’s Time” counters the notion that people of faith uniformly oppose choice.<br /><br />“We all need to be reminded that many, many people of deep faith across this country are pro-faith, pro-family and pro-choice, and we fervently believe that it’s time to change the conversation,” Rev. Dr. Alethea Smith-Withers, chair of RCRC’s Board of Directors, told reporters.<br /><br />Her sentiments were echoed by Rabbi Jessica Kirschner. In her remarks, Kirschner built a compelling argument that for many people of faith, religion is no barrier to support for choice.<br /><br />“There is no monolithic religious opinion about contraception, abortion or sex education,” she said. “There are many religious opinions, and many religious people, and for far too long, the many have been shouted down by strident voices who leave no space for nuance, difference or conversation.”<br /><br />Dr. Willie Parker, who provides abortions and contraceptives to women in Chicago, explained the practical consequences created by the Religious Right’s shrill rhetoric.</p><p>“I am often reviled and excommunicated from a faith identity by our religious brothers and sisters who wax extreme on the abortion issue,” he said.<br /><br />And according to Parker, those consequences extend to his patients: “I am a witness to the torment of my patients by the conflict created when they make a decision to have an abortion, as one in three women do in this country by the age of 45, but are told that doing so is mutually exclusive with the faith identity they hold.”<br /><br />That conflict, so often erased from the abortion debate, is at the center of RCRC’s new campaign. Speakers emphasized the need to focus on the experiences of women themselves, particularly women from marginalized communities disproportionately affected by the Religious Right’s anti-choice campaigns.<br /><br />“Women of color and allies, it’s time to elevate our own experiences as we lead, organize, and advocate,” said LaTasha Mayes, executive director of reproductive rights group New Voices Pittsburgh.</p><p>Mayes further pointed out that support for legal abortion and contraceptive access is consistently high among religious African Americans — a fact notably absent from dogmatic rhetoric on the subject.<br /><br />Ultimately, the campaign and its backers seek to remind observers of an important truth: that women’s health is a non-sectarian issue, despite how it’s been framed by extremists. RCRC’s campaign to reclaim the conversation on choice stands to benefit everyone, regardless of their faith identity — or even their lack thereof.<br /><br />Aimee Thorne-Thompson of Advocates for Youth told the press that she supports RCRC and its work, even though she identifies as a secular Catholic. “I can and do stand alongside RCRC to serve as a bridge between secular people and people of faith, and engage us in conversations about how faith can be a tool for justice,” she said.<br /><br />I asked RCRC’s president, the Rev. Harry Knox, what he’d say to his fundamentalist brothers and sisters given the chance.</p><p>“I want them to see me listen,” he said simply. “I want to give the impression that I understand their values — then I’d share a story, or a fact, or a statistic, to push them forward one step toward reproductive justice.”</p><p>That give and take, he said, is what religion looks like when it’s done well.<br /><br />That mentality is antithetical to the Religious Right, but we at Americans United agree with Knox: It’s time to set aside extremism and let people make their own decisions about their own health.<br /><br />For more information about “It’s Time,” including resources for activists and clergypeople, visit RCRC’s <a href="http://rcrc.org/?page_id=1116">website</a>.<br /> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/reproductive-health-conscience-clauses-for-religious-objectors">Reproductive Health &amp; Conscience Clauses for Religious Objectors</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-coalition-for-reproductive-choice">Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/abortion-rights">abortion rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/contraception">contraception</a></span></div></div>Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:05:11 +0000Ms. Sarah Jones9605 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/a-choice-conversation-new-campaign-highlights-intersection-of-faith-women-s#commentsAmong The ‘Teavangelicals’: Do Conservative Christians Dominate The Tea Party?https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/among-the-teavangelicals-do-conservative-christians-dominate-the-tea-party
<a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">&#039;Teavangelicals&#039; sound a lot like the same old Religious Right just dressed up in more secular garb.
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>David Brody has christened them “Teavangelicals.”</p><p>There’s so much overlap between the Tea Party and conservative evangelicals that Brody, chief political correspondent for TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, came up with his own term for this particular political animal.</p><p>Today at the National Press Club, Brody, a pollster and a panel of journalists <a href="http://publicreligion.org/2012/06/our-corner-who-are-the-teavangelicals/">discussed the “Teavangelicals”</a> – and their potential political impact on the upcoming elections. (Brody is author of <a href="http://zondervan.com/9780310335610">a new book </a><em>The Teavangelicals: The Inside Story of how The Evangelicals and the Tea Party Are Taking Back America</em>.)</p><p>The consensus: these voters are solidly in Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s corner, but no one knows for sure how hard they will work to turn out other voters on his behalf.</p><p>Robert P. Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute, rolled out polling data demonstrating heavy Religious Right influence on the Tea Party. Seven out of 10 Tea Partiers are white Christians, he says, and 47 percent of the movement’s devotees – almost half – consider themselves part of the Religious Right.</p><p>Tea Partiers have focused publicly on smaller government and lower taxes in their political activities, but they are just as right-wing on key social issues as their Religious Right brethren. Sixty-seven percent of Tea Partiers say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, compared to 65 percent of white evangelicals who hold that view.</p><p>The numbers are just as closely aligned on marriage equality. Three-quarters of Tea Partiers say gay couples should not be allowed to marry, while 77 percent of white evangelicals take the same stance.</p><p>There are a few differences. For example, Jones says Tea Partiers are more tolerant toward Romney’s Mormon faith. Sixty-one percent say they are somewhat or very comfortable with a Mormon serving as president. Only 47 percent of white evangelicals say the same.</p><p>But since Romney has wrapped up the Republican nomination, Jones reports, evangelicals seem to have put aside their theological trepidations. Sixty-seven percent now have a favorable view of the likely GOP candidate.</p><p>Brody, a convert to evangelical Christianity, says Teavangelicals merge traditional Religious Right concerns with a conservative perspective on taxation and the size of government. They worry, he said, “about God getting smaller and government getting bigger. They see it all through a biblical worldview.”</p><p>Press club panelists today insisted that the movement is not large enough to dominate the Republican Party, but it is a bloc that has to be reckoned with. They note that Romney was not this movement’s first choice for president, and he may have to take steps to excite them if he wants to win. The panelists also note that the Tea Party corner in Congress is significant and has to be mollified.</p><p>And the movement’s power may grow in the future.</p><p>Brody says Ralph Reed’s Faith &amp; Freedom Coalition – an outfit with a Teavangelical veneer – claims it will turn out three million evangelical voters who didn’t go to the polls in 2008. If the FFC succeeds, it could dramatically change the election outcome.</p><p>In addition, in his book, Brody says Teavangelicals are targeting state and local offices, from state legislatures down to school boards. They hope, he said, that “the ultimate result will be controlling the agenda and comprising the makeup of many of the state Republican parties.” Ultimately, he says, they want “an America where the federal government is minimized and Judeo-Christian principles are maximized.”</p><p>Advocates of church-state separation have cause to be concerned about the Teavangelicals. Many libertarians are involved in the Tea Party movement, but they don’t seem to be in the majority.</p><p>Brody denies that Teavangelicals want to turn America into a “Christian nation,” but if they want a government based on a “biblical worldview,” I’m not so sure. I’d like my government based on church-state separation – as the Constitution mandates.</p><p>Teavangelicals sound a lot like the same old Religious Right just dressed up in more secular garb.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-groups%E2%80%99-involvement-in-candidate-elections">Religious Groups’ Involvement in Candidate Elections</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/teavangelicals">Teavangelicals</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tea-party">tea party</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/david-brody">David Brody</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pat-robertson">Pat Robertson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/robert-p-jones">Robert P. Jones</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/public-religion-research-institute">Public Religion Research Institute</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/abortion-rights">abortion rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/au-defends-marriage-equality">AU Defends Marriage Equality</a></span></div></div>Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:32:30 +0000Joseph L. Conn7265 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/among-the-teavangelicals-do-conservative-christians-dominate-the-tea-party#comments